Cotswold Chatterblog

Cotswolds MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown today spoke with representatives from Post Office Ltd and received the final details of which branches are going to be affected by their closure programme.

The exact details are under embargo until Tuesday 5th February, when the public consultation begins. However, Mr Clifton-Brown commented “Residents of the Cotswolds have been deeply concerned for some time about this matter. Following the news I have received today I am appalled at the decisions taken by Post Office Ltd, our region has been the hardest hit across all of Gloucestershire”

“I have demonstrated on numerous occasions my commitment to fighting to protect rural services, and as a community we now have another battle on our hands”

Mr Clifton-Brown will be organising a series of public meetings in the affected parishes on the Friday 8th and Saturday 9th February, details of which will be released on Tuesday 5th February through all local news sources.

Source Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP (Cotswold)
www.geoffreycliftonbrown.com

Discover underwear through the ages when local costume expert Shelagh Lovett Turner comes to the Corinium Museum for an afternoon talk.

‘The Allure of the Unseen’, an informal ‘talk with tea’, will take place at the Park Street Museum on February 21st, where visitors can discover more about the range and styles of underwear worn through time.

There will also be the chance to see some historic underwear from Shelagh’s own stunning costume collection, as she will illustrate her talk with some fascinating underwear examples. These will include petticoats and pantaloons, the pure silk of the 1930s and the man-made fabrics of the 1950s and 60s.

The talk will be followed by plenty of time for questions and an informal chat with Shelagh over tea, coffee and cake.

‘The Allure of the Unseen’ runs from 2pm – 3pm and tickets cost £3 per person – booking is essential to avoid disappointment.

For more details, to find out about other Museum events, or to book tickets, please telephone the Corinium Museum on 01285 655611 or email museums@cotswold.gov.uk

Source: Cotswold District Council

Related Articles:
Historic shoes and footwear fairytales at the Corinium museum

Have a sneaky peek at anything from history and hairy beasts to shiny shoes this half term when the Corinium Museum hosts a range of fun events for children.

The Park Street museum will hold historical sessions from February 18th-22nd, which will shed light on the Stone Age, the Romans and the Tudors, while another hands-on event for youngsters is all about ‘Sparkly Shoes’.

The first activity to take place during the school break is part of the Museum’s ‘Archaeology Seminars’, and will look at the Romans in the Cotswolds.  It is aimed at 9-12 year olds and will allow children an up-close look at Roman artefacts.  This event is being held on Wednesday February 20th, from 10am-11.30am.

Also on February 20th is a ‘Sparkly Shoes’ activity, where children can create their own glittery and street-wise shoes, while drawing inspiration from the Museum’s current ‘Cinderella Shoes’ exhibition.  This will run from 1pm-3pm and costs £1 per child.  Each child must be accompanied by an adult.

Two more events will follow on Thursday February 21st, with ‘Wonderful Woolly Mammoths’ (10.30am-12pm) aimed at the 7-11 year old age bracket.  In this activity, children will look at the unique, elephant-like animals who roamed the world during the Stone Age, and they will be able to create their own Mammoth model.

The ‘Tudor Life’ family event, also on Thursday February 21st, will examine how the Tudors lived, and parents and children will look at costumes and artefacts, as well Tudor etiquette and dancing.  Visitors will also get the chance to make a Tudor pomander and hat to take home.  This session runs from 2.30pm-4pm.

For more information on any of these events, including admission prices and availability, please ring the Corinium Museum on 01285 655611 or email museums@cotswold.gov.uk

Source: Cotswold District Council 

Ofcom have decided to award the local Digital Radio Multiplex licence for Gloucestershire to Muxco.

Cotswolds MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown has expressed his delight and said “Throughout my political career I have campaigned vigorously to ensure that rural areas receive the same level of service as urban areas. It is fantastic news that the residents of the Cotswolds will be able to have access to this exciting and innovative broadcast medium”

Of the two companies bidding for the licence Muxco offered the best coverage to the residents of the Cotswolds, with an estimated 92% of adults in Gloucestershire able to receive a DAB signal.
In expressing his congratulations to MuxCo, Mr Clifton-Brown said that he was looking forward to working with them in the coming months and years to ensure the residents of the Cotswolds receive the best possible service.
Source Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP (Cotswold)

www.geoffreycliftonbrown.com

DAB stands for Digital Audio Broadcasting and involves technologies that broadcast sound digitally across radio waves. This means audiences enjoy digital quality sound that’s hiss and crackle free.
DAB can also transmit many services in a single area of airspace that takes almost the same space as just one FM station, giving listeners a hige choice of radio entertainment
www.getdabdigitalradio.com

MuxCo Ltd is a joint-venture between National Grid Wireless and Folder Media and was created to work with local radio partners and bid for local DAB digital radio licences. In each area MuxCo parners with other media companies to collectively bid for each licence.
MuxCo Gloucestershire is owned by UKRD(25%) , Murfin Media Ltd (25%) , Town and Country Broadcasting ltd (25%) and MuxCo Ltd (25%). The twelve year licence could achieve coverage of an area with an adult (aged 15+) population of around 460,000.
In each area a number of stations broadcast together in a “multiplex”. The multiplex operator holds a licence and builds a transmitter network. This operator then contracts with lots of different radio stations to broadcast on its platform. The services proposed at the time the licence was awarded were as follows:-
Severn Sound, Gold 774, Star 107.5, Easy Radio, Shuffle, Smithy Rock, Local Live, UCB UK, Traffic Radio, Variety Pop Rock, BBC Radio Gloucester, Podcast Channel

Source MuxCo Gloucestershire
www.muxco.com

Today (30th January) Gloucestershire County Council released the results of its survey asking residents their views on the level of council tax increase for next year. Nearly 3000 people took part and, whilst the results were close, 56.7% opted for a council tax increase including extra money to pay for essential flood protection measures.

The survey used three methods: an online survey; a random phone poll; and a questionnaire to the council’s citizen panel. Participants were asked to vote for one of three council tax rise options, all of which included a base increase 3.8%, a figure below the current rate of RPI inflation and below next year’s percentage increase in the basic state pension.

Whilst Option 1 was the single biggest choice, an overall majority of people voted for either Option 2 or Option 3, in favour of some sort of extra levy to pay for flood prevention measures, such as improved drainage. The results also varied according to District. For example, a relatively large number of Tewkesbury residents favoured option 3 and the Forest of Dean had a high proportion of votes for option 1. This is probably due to the fact that these areas were the most and least affect affected by the flooding this summer.

The Cabinet will consider the results and make their decision at a special Budget Cabinet meeting on 6th February 2008.

Cllr Barry Dare, leader of the Council, says: “I’d like to thank everyone who took part in the survey. I really wanted to know what Gloucestershire people thought about this – and I am grateful that they took the time to let us know. I probably shouldn’t be surprised that the results are so close – this has always been a difficult issue. My Cabinet and I will now have to think very carefully about which option we now recommend to Council.”

Source: Gloucestershire County Council

Related articles:
County Council gives public choice over council tax

Tuesday 15th January – Friday 1st February at The Theatre Chipping Norton

A fine art photographer who lives in the Vale of Evesham and exhibits in the Cotswolds is staging her first major solo show at The Theatre Chipping Norton.

Kate Barry initially studied fine art and black and white photographic printing at Wolverhampton University, working in a variety of photographic formats such as portrait and commercial. For several years she worked as a photojournalist, starting out on The Banbury Guardian and later moving to the Evesham Journal Series.

Kate currently lectures at Evesham and Malvern Hills College in digital photography and Photoshop skills.

She specialises in images of landscapes, seascapes and natural forms and is interested in how the changing light and weather conditions can transform the landscape into a spectacle of form, tone, light and colours.

“I hope to capture the essence of what I see and feel in order to create an emotional response of wonder, delight, and surprise that celebrates the beauty of nature.”

Kate’s exhibition – Land and Sea – at The Gallery at The Theatre Chipping Norton will include some of her early black and white images that were taken on black and white film and processed and printed in a traditional darkroom, and which have now been transferred onto digital format. There will also be a cross-section of her more recent work captured on digital format.

Kate’s work is exhibited and sold in the 6HQ Photographic Gallery in Chipping Campden and The Gallery @ the Guild in Chipping Campden and is available as limited edition giclee* prints on fine art papers, each signed and numbered.

*Giclee is an invented name for the process of making fine art prints from a digital source using ink-jet printing. In recent times Giclee as a fine art term has come to be associated with prints using fade resistant “archival” inks. 

The Theatre Chipping Norton
2 Spring Street
Chipping Norton
Oxfordshire
OX7 5NL
Telephone 01608 642350
www.chippingnortontheatre.co.uk
The Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday 10.00 – 13.00 and during films and performances and admission is free.

www.6hq.co.uk
www.thegalleryattheguild.co.uk

Discover a fascinating insight into 14th Century England and its colourful characters when the Corinium Museum hosts two lectures in January. 

Both lectures will focus on the life and times of Geoffrey Chaucer, a renowned author and poet in medieval Britain, in an era of British history which saw literature and architecture flourish.  ‘The Age of Chaucer’ lectures will be hosted by local historian Tim Porter. 

The first lecture, on January 24th, is called ‘Chaucer and His Favoured Friends’, while the event on January 31st is called ‘Regional Celebrities’.  Both lectures run from 2pm – 4pm. 

The lectures will then link to a day school called ‘The Downfall of Richard II’ on Saturday February 9th.  This event, from 10am-4pm, tells how Cirencester came into the national spotlight in 1400 after Richard II’s last supporters were arrested by townspeople.

Tickets for the two lectures cost £6.50 per talk, with a 10% discount for season ticket holders and Friends of the Corinium Museum.  Tickets for the day school cost £25 per person (including tea, coffee and biscuits) and booking is essential.  Lunch is not included. 

For more details on either event or to book, please contact the Corinium Museum on 01285 655611 or email: museums@cotswold.gov.uk

Source: Cotswold District Council

Other Corinium Museum articles:

Historic shoes and footwear fairytales at the Corinium museum
Classic pottery comes to Corinium Museum

Join local historian John Loosley at Cirencester’s Corinium Museum later this month when he hosts a talk on the historic almshouses of Gloucestershire.

The evening talk takes places at the Park Street venue on Thursday January 31st, and will focus on Gloucestershire’s many interesting almshouses, which date from the 12th century through to Victorian times.

John Loosley will explore the origins of these almshouses, the people who founded them and the rules and regulations the almspeople had to obey. Many of the almshouses – some of which are still in use today – are particularly fine architectural examples of their period.

‘Gloucestershire’s Almshouses’ is part of a series of evening lectures taking place at the Corinium Museum. It runs from 7pm–9pm, although finish times may vary because of time for questions.

Booking is essential and tickets for the event cost £5. Annual season ticket holders and Friends of the Corinium Museum receive a 10% discount.

Please contact Helen Arbon at the Corinium Museum on 01285 655611 or email museums@cotswold.gov.uk to book a place or to find out about other events.

Photo: (c) Rick, http://ligthelm.multiply.com

Source: Cotswold District Council

Other Corinium Museum articles:
Master mosaic making at Corinium Museum session
Classic pottery comes to Corinium Museum
Hands-on history sessions over half-term at the Corinium Museum
Make Bronze Age jewellery at Museum session

A month-long exhibition which looks at historic shoes and footwear fairytales will open at the Corinium Museum, Cirencester on Sunday January 20th.

‘Cinderella Shoes’ will showcase 200-year-old silk shoes with gorgeous gold-coloured buckles; huge protective boots from Victorian times; funky and chunky Seventies platform shoes and tiny baby bootees from 1900.

The fabulous footwear comes from the Museum’s own collection and that of local collector Shelagh Lovett-Turner.

Alongside the exhibits are big, shoe-inspired collages made by children from Acorns Day Nursery, Bright Eyes Children’s Centre, Cirencester Opportunity Group and Stepping Stones Nursery.

The toddlers all met the Museum’s Education Officer Rachael Holtom, who showed them some of the old shoes, played shoe-inspired games with them and told a story that involved shoes. The children then created their own artwork inspired by shoes and shoe stories.

Rachael said: “There are quite a few stories and rhymes that involve shoes – ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’, ‘Puss in Boots’, ‘One, Two, Buckle My Shoe’ and so on.

“The children have all produced fantastic artwork and really enjoyed looking at the old shoes and the shoe activities that their nurseries organised.”

The footwear on display is grouped into fairytale themes, under the story headings. There will also be hands-on activities for small children, such as decorating a shoe outline with buttons and buckles, shoes to try on and a chance to measure their own feet .

For adults, there are also ‘lucky charm’ shoes to look at, which were hidden under floors in the past in an attempt to stop witches entering homes. Visitors can also find out how the humble boot played a part in female emancipation, why shoes were not always made to fit the left and right foot and see a small selection of cobbler’s tools.

The exhibition runs from Sunday January 20th to Sunday 24th February and entrance costs £1. For opening times and more information, please phone 01285 655611.

Source: Cotswold District Council